Being Inspired

My seester, Rachel, left me a comment on my last post about me inspiring her to post her journals just like I did. First, I'm not sure if she was being serious or sarcastic...it could totally go either way on that one. Second, she called me an addict. I would like to put forth that I am NOT an addict. I am inspired. Inspired by many random things, perhaps, but inspired nonetheless.
     When something catches my attention and keeps it for a good bit of time, I am inspired. When I hear a beautiful piece of music by an artist I have never heard before, I am inspired to find more music by said artist. When I find a new tea that tastes absolutely divine, my inspiration to try new teas is reaffirmed. When I read a particular genre and in turn fall in love with the story I am reading, I end up inspired to find more books in the same genre even if I don't typically read that genre. (This usually happens with sci-fi books.) And, when a sister calls me an Addict...I am inspired to write a post about inspiration. Imagine!
     According to Free Dictionary.com, Inspire has the following definitions:

                  1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence
                  2. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion
                  3. To stimulate to action; motivate / To affect or touch
                  4. To draw forth; elicit or arouse
                  5. To be the cause or source of; bring about

     Reading those definitions makes me think past the easy, fluffy post that I started off writing. I can't help but wonder if I ever truly inspire anyone. It seems that the 5th definition is probably the most usual type of inspiration. But, wouldn't it be nice to be able to claim that you inspired people in the form of definitions # 3 and/or #4? I think it would be. How many people can claim the status of #3? Perhaps our parents? Probably politicians. Hopefully the Holy Spirit.
     Are we open for inspiration? or do we keep ourselves held back. Many times it is easier to be discontent with our lives, but still refuse to accept the inspiration from others that would push us to change. It's safer to reject inspiration. But What IF? What IF we accepted the inspiration from others around us? What would change? Would be become more outgoing? More focused on the goals we've set up in our lives? More likely to take risks?
     With these questions comes a fear of mine. Change. I don't really like change, but I'm beginning to accept it and to realize that it isn't as bad as I always thought it was. My coworkers are becoming huge inspirations to me when it comes to actually looking for a new job that I will enjoy. My neighbor inspired me to finally  follow through with making those doctors appointments that I've needed to make for years now. My husband shows me by example and inspires me a little more each day to be less selfish of my own time. My sister inspires me to become a better writer. (even if, by better, I only mean that I write more often and that I write more meaningful posts.) Little by little, my inspirations are Changing my Definition of Life and I think I like it.

A Show of Journals

Hi. My name is Hannah and I love buying and collecting journals. Thankfully, this is not one of my obsessions.  I think. I bought a few new journals a week or two ago and looked up the manufacturer of once of them yesterday before I started work. In the Google search that followed, I found a blog entirely about notebooks. Picture after picture of this blog's readers notebook collections inspired me to photograph my own group. 

This first picture is of the notebooks/journals that I will probably give away as gifts because I don't believe I'll ever use them myself. Out of the picture above, four were purchased from Target. The blue one with the birdcage. The purple butterfly. The Dubble Bubble and the Donald Duck. I had actually purchased two of the blue birdcage notebooks. I only photographed one because I was writing in the other at the time. This one being written in is the journal that helped inspire this post. The Passion journal was a gift but I have to admit I really don't like it that much (really hope i don't offend anyone by admitting that. eek.) and the blue circle notebook was an online freebie from a few years back. None of the notebooks in this first picture have been used at all.

This second picture shows the notebooks I plan on using personally sometime in the future. R2D2 has been around for many many years. I think I bought him before I even started college 10 1/2 years ago. Bumblebee is from when Transformers first released in theaters. Loved the character so much I had to have the notebook. The cherries just appealed to me. They're kinda preppy and totally cute. The red eagle/TKC notebook is from my job. The two smaller notepads with flowers are from the Target dollar spot. The red Fleur de Lis is from Borders and the green Celtic knot is from Barnes and Noble. The Dell laptop notebook was an end of the year gift from Dell to my company. Dell sent all of my teammates and I one. And the last two...the Penmanship and two patterned notebook are also both from Target. Have to admit I love both of them.

These above have been used/ are in use currently. The green beat up notebook at the top lists my Christmas gifts as I buy them each year so I can keep track of how much I'm spending on people. The Dots was used once in an emergency. The purple and black (at the top) has a written conversation between my younger sister and I in it. The wordy notebook right below it is my brainstorming journal. I have lists in there of pithy sayings from my family, license plates, ideas for blogging, etc. The Chess notebook is my Books Read journal. I have written down every book that I've read since January 2007 in that notebook. The map is for whatever I need it to be for while the colored clipboard notepad holder is just colored. I don't know that I've really used any of the actual notepad yet on that one. And last is the tiny little Moleskine notebook. It is actually a day planner that I've been using to keep track of my piano lessons in. I have also begun using it like a checkbook for my personal debit card. 

And last, but definitely not least is my collection of college diaries and journals. I honestly started the diary in the top left corner when I was nine and never truly Finished the diary out before I started the next. In the folder next to the diary is my first real journal. The cover tore off from over use and even after having been duck-taped, I had to remove it and put the pages into the folder for keeping. After that journal came the black leather one which was a gift from Joseph, then Arwen, then the metal journal (which was my favorite). These were followed by the yellow and brown, the poppy, the blue flowered journal, and the Jack Russel Terrier notebook. The last entry in the terrier notebook was written a month after my wedding. I have not written in a journal since then until just yesterday. See, I think I'm going to try again. I used to love writing down my thoughts and the details of my humdrum life. Maybe I'll begin to love it again. 

        Do you collect notebooks or journals? If yes, do you keep a personal journal? How long have you done so? I'm completely curious to learn more about you, so please tell!

Mission Accomplished!

This past Saturday night Joseph and I were over at my in-laws visiting when my father-in-law asked if we knew of any way to copy a video offline and save it on his computer. Joseph and I both had a few ideas as to how we could manage this feat, but none of our ideas panned out. This led me to resort to desperate measures. I clicked on the "Contact Us" link and copied the email address down. The following is what was typed and received after I clicked on "Compose" in my email account. (the following has been edited to protect the innocent and their emails)

Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2011 8:34 PM
To: Admin@RiverDogs.com
Subject: Request for copy of 2010 Season Hilights Video from RiverDogs Website

Good Evening,

I was wondering if it would be possible to receive a copy of the 2010 season hilights video showing on the RiverDogs website. My brother-in-law, M--- played for the team this summer and my father-in-law would really like a copy of the video for his own personal viewing. This would be a personal video only.

Please let me know if this is a reasonable and possible request. It would mean a great deal to M-'s dad to be able to add this video to his personal tracking of M-'s baseball career.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Hannah

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Dave Echols wrote:

Dave Echols

EVP / General Manager

Charleston RiverDogs

(Okay, so he didn't really write anything, but he DID forward my email to Noel.)

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Noel Blaha wrote:

Hi Hannah,

Please provide me with a mailing address and I'll send a copy on a disc to you.

All the best,

Noel Blaha

Director of Promotions

Charleston RiverDogs

www.RiverDogs.com

Of course I replied to Noel's email with my FIL's address and thanked her profusely. So, yeah. WOW. It was a shot in the dark, but it worked and I am SO excited about it!

New Year's Resolutions - Or, Why I Don't Make Any

So, Joseph and I went down to Manassas together this afternoon to visit McKay's and Aldi. On our way down, I mentioned to Joseph that I was planning on curbing my spending of money on new books. Of course, he asked me what other things I had planned for this year. Or other things that I want to accomplish. (Basically, what were my new year's resolutions.) I had to admit to him that I don't make any new year's resolutions and thankfully, he didn't ask why. But, I got to thinking about it. Why DON'T I make any resolutions each new year? It's not that I think they're a bad idea. And, it isn't as though there aren't a few things that I don't do at the beginning of each year. I mean, I always make a point of praying that no birds poop on me each year. That prayer has been answered every year since I started requesting saving from bird poop.

No, I don't make resolutions because there isn't anything much more discouraging than failing a resolution. I've made the "lose weight" resolution. I've made the "eat better" resolution. The "be nicer to my family and coworkers", the "read more books", the "read fewer books", the "use the internet less and spend more time with Joseph", etc. The list never ends. But honestly, it never fails that I fall off the wagon and end up more discouraged afterwards than I had ever been before making the resolution in the first place.

Instead, I've learned to go with the flow and to choose to make up my mind each day. It's so much easier to make the choice daily than it is to choose to accomplish something in the long term. I know this doesn't work for most people, in fact, it probably doesn't work for hardly anyone but myself. But, it's okay. Because, for me, a goal is like faith was described in Daughter of Joy by Kathleen Morgan - It's a daily choice. We have to CHOOSE to believe in something every day. In the same way, I have to choose to eat right every morning when my day starts out. If I eat a good breakfast, lunch is easier to eat and supper as well.

What about you? Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Or do you have a different method of accomplishing your long-term goals?

Question to the World

So, I'm just going to jump right in and tell you how I feel.

I feel like my in-laws don't really like me. But, I'd like to get to know them better. They're both reasonably civil and sometimes even really nice, but there's always something holding them back. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly the most outgoing person on my own. I have to have someone to bounce off of. I tend to be the person that sits off to the side of a conversation listening to everything going on around me, but not really getting personally involved.

Here's the thing. My father-in-law just have a quintuple bypass surgery on his heart yesterday and I don't know much about it at all. Joseph isn't exactly one for talking about something like this and I feel weird calling my mother-in-law and asking for details now (that's it done and all). See, my in-laws didn't tell me about the surgery, Joseph did. My in-laws don't talk to me. So I kinda feel out of place in asking for information about something they didn't share with me on their own already. Would I be out of place in asking about it now? I don't want them to think I'm not interested in them, but it's just hard to show interest in someone that doesn't seem to be interested in me.

help! What should I do?? I need advice, please